Her Creativity Uplifted Students And Parents

OBITUARIES

No matter where life led her, Phyllis Lee Lovitt used her creativity and love of art to motivate gifted elementary-school children and, sometimes, their parents.

Lovitt, an Orange County teacher known for her unusual class projects, died Monday of breast cancer. She was 53.

``She challenged and motivated her kids,'' said her sister, Marsha Garrison of Rockville, Ind.

She also challenged her students' parents ``by getting them to see their children's talents,'' said Lovitt's fiance, Charles Palant of Orlando.

Last year, Lovitt had her gifted students at Union Park Elementary School send letters to celebrities around the country, asking for a single autographed shoe, Palant said.

He said she got sneakers from John Travolta, flip-flops from Jimmy Buffett, loafers from Sting and tiny pumps from comedian Shari Lewis. ``They went on display at school.''

The exercise wasn't to get souvenirs but to teach kids how to write letters and research addresses, Palant said.

Other creative class projects involved having students draw huge cutouts of different whale species and build castles out of recycled materials.

Lovitt was as creative in her own life. She was a co-founder of the Center for Early Childhood Development in Bradenton in 1975 and later taught in several public schools there.

She was an adjunct professor at the University of South Florida's Sarasota campus in 1988 and joined the Defense Department's teachers' abroad program at the Spangdalem Air Force Base in Germany for three years until she moved to Orlando in 1995.

Lovitt was a member of Trinity United Methodist Church of Bradenton. She also is survived by daughters, Christina Rogers and Shannon D'Angelo, both of Bradenton; brothers, Dwight Carnes of Indianapolis, Ind., David Carnes of Greenwood, Ind., and Mark Carnes of Paragon, Ind., and one grandson.

Arrangements are being handled by Brown and Sons Funeral Homes, Bradenton.